As with our last movie night post, we need to start with the bad news. 1. The Durban International Film Festival (or DIFF), one of the most important film festivals on the African continent, has been through some turmoil lately. With only a couple months to go to DIFF, the festival manager Sarah Dawson as […]
In some ways all women are the same. We bleed every moon until you hit a certain age and then we all get hot flashes. We like sex even though we are told we should not like sex. We have sex. We have babies. White women, brown women, yellow women, black. We are all the same. But, that’s […]
In the late nineteen-fifties, a brutal but secret war unfolded between French colonial authorities and the maquis, pro-independence nationalists, in the forests of what was then the French administered territory of Eastern Cameroun. The uprising was one of sub-Sahara Africa’s lost independence wars. Most of the fighting, and the ensuing atrocities committed in the name […]
Cameroon's police apparently interrogated Samuel Eto'o and took away his passport over the team's World Cup display.
Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world.
Jean-Marie Teno's film, 'Une Feuille dans le Vent' (A Leaf in the Wind), lays bare the affective costs of public silence in Cameroon.
The mistake of directing the hardline scorn we reserve for say Madonna and Fox News at small independent filmmakers or young volunteers at NGO's in Africa.
A group of graduate students in New York photograph the city's immigrant and refugee communities, especially the African ones.
What would happen if the president goes missing? The people wouldn't care. They've learned to live without him.
No.17 in our regular update on new African films to watch.
Nigerian photographer Jide Odukoya’s portfolio offers an exceptional insight into the social fabric of Lagos. His Facebook page documents fashion events, open mic ‘happenings’ and weddings, while his official website reveals focused street photography series, such as ‘ADay in the World (Creek Road Market)’, ‘Kids in Makoko’, ‘Lazy Obalende’ or ‘The Business of Worship’. As […]
Alice Nkom, the brave, activist lawyer, harassed and imprisoned by Cameroon's repressive regime on the government's actions: "Threats like these show us that the fight must continue.”
Foodyism and obscure ‘ethnic’ food are trendy these days. So, it is odd that South Africa hasn’t received more attention.
Is it France's interests to reform its unequal, exploitative relationship with Africans?
When the good Lord handed down the Decalogue to Moses atop Mount Sinai, he limited himself to just the ten commandments. The new boss of Cameroon’s national football team, Rigobert Song, is obviously more demanding.
Twelve years after ground was first broken on an oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon, the documentary film, Quel Souvenir explores the impact of this World Bank sponsored project on local communities from inland Chad to the Cameroonian coast. While the World Bank and oil companies like Exxon and Chevron promised local development along the […]
Taking up the fashionable concept of the book trailer, Edgar Sekloka, one half of French hip hip duo Milk Coffee & Sugar,* here previews, through a powerful poem, his recently released Adulte à Présent, a teenage novel about 15-year old ‘la cadette’ [the youngest] from Douala, Cameroon, and 13-year-old ‘le fils’ [the son] from New […]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZcQKYdWKoY Cameroon (‘Kamer’) hip hop is churning out lots of videos lately. Like this one by Nkunkuma. A nice track, if you make it past the intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6aGKw6dng Video for Douala rapper Kastra. I haven’t yet figured out what he means with “I’m your brown cacao in your black cappuccino.” And what’s with the line ” … call me Chris Brown only if you’re Rihanna”? But the music pushes all the right buttons.
French-Cameroonian rapper Lalcko released a strong record earlier this year: ‘L’eau lave mais l’argent rend propre.’ Ever seen this video he recorded ‘between Yaoundé and Douala’ for his 2007 track ‘Lumumba’? It’s dedicated “to all my Lumumbas born of aggression and cemented by the fight.”